


Spectrum

by taichara



Category: Saint Seiya
Genre: Drabble Collection, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 04:28:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3636729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taichara/pseuds/taichara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nine drabbles of the inhabitants of the underworld.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. colourless

**Author's Note:**

> colourless : the dead Saints, Gryphon Minos

A rude awakening from half-remembered agonies, and then they stood,  
wan Saintly shades clothed rudely into bloodless flesh  
and the carapaces of glittering dead adamant locked around them  
as fetters and sharp chains.

Torments were reflected still in the cold flat eyes,  
and even as they reached out one to another the brightness of  
the living world fled, was lost to their damned sight.

All the world bled dry before them then;  
with barely a moment to mourn, before the silk-soft purr  
of the Gryphon tore their attention to the wraith-like  
souls of the Court, and they sealed their fates.


	2. red

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> red : Basilisk Sylphid

There is nothing quite like it --

The sudden swift cleaving through shining armour and frail flesh,  
the surge of victory singing through his war-tense soul,  
the scattering splashing waves of purest crimson  
as a fool's life is spilled out across the pitiless earth.

Nothing quite like it; and nothing pleased Sylphid more  
than to be awash in slick scarlet, the wine-sweet drops  
clinging to his glittering night-dark panoply  
and splashing across his face like rich pomegranate on his tongue.

This, this was the sweetest, surest triumph.

For the glory of the Unseen King, the world entire would bathe in blood.


	3. orange

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> orange : Lykaeon Phlegyas

In the fires of Acheron did Phlegyas ply his trade, wolf-wild   
and sharp as obsidian razors amongst the embers and bright magma,  
the smoky brilliance of the sluggish waves of the endless Lake of Fire.

Against the unending hellfire glow even his Surplice at times could seem to smoulder,  
his storm-pale hair falsely glowing with a tint as garish as any torch --  
and, for those delivered to him for punishment, his scream was burning agony.

But then, that was always the way.

Here in the gleaming deeps all was the brilliance of flame,  
and Phlegyas did so enjoy his work.


	4. yellow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yellow : Sphinx Pharaoh

Like pale spun gold it is, brilliant as the amber teardrops  
that sinners once bled and warred over;  
warm and shining as the lost sun of the living,  
as the false sun he had crafted to trap this precious jewel,  
as the burning saffron of his own riddling beast's eyes.

_One endless night soon enough,_

Pharaoh mused silently, grooming away ichor  
as he stalked the damned in his court --  
the beast who weighed the hearts of men --

_I will bury my hands in that brilliant golden mane,_  
and in that moment the wayward silver harpist   
will at last be broken. 


	5. green

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> green : Alraune Queen

_Such a pity, all this wasted on a savage._

Queen gazed upon the fey and verdant garden sprawling wild   
Beyond Pharaoh's judgement-hall,  
spared a moment to glide wordlessly past the weeping marble beauty,  
then knelt to search amongst the shivering leaves and blossoms for a moment.

In this sea of verdancy,   
somewhere in this riot   
there must surely be --

_Ah, there_

Chuckling to himself, the Alraune wrapped fingers firmly about a sturdy stalk,  
stroked the jade-black leaves once, and pulled.

No mandrake's fatal scream did he fear, no.

To steal unused power from the Sphinx's garden; that was a _pleasure_.


	6. blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> blue : Hypnos

For the briefest of moments -- for an eternity --  
Hypnos gazed upward to the false heavens above,  
the deep unblemished azure of Elysium's celestial vault, tinted to perfection 

_'make a Heaven of Hell, or Hell a Heaven' ... wise little mortal ..._

\-- and a colour as patently false as the timeless paradise he was now trapped in.

To see the cerulean skies of Olympos, now,  
or the roiling cobalt storm of the restless seas;  
_that_ would be a pleasant thing, but it was not to be.

And so he waited now, sleep-bringing captive,  
and dreamed of the pleasure of the battlefield's blue skies.


	7. purple

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> purple : Papillon Myu

_Always strange,_

\-- so Myu mused, as he shivered stained-glass wings  
and called his inhuman troops to order --

_how perception could twist ..._

The Romans made the purple a symbol of empire;  
and so it went, from the robes of the Church to the amethysts of kings --  
and yet the _purpura_ was a _red_ , a rose-violet at best  
instead of the twilight colour sought for all those years.

The truth hid itself behind a clever mirage;  
and so -- as his lean frame shifted to something more monstrous --  
did the Fey Star appreciate the lesson to be learned from such pretty little deceptions.


	8. white

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> white : Balrog Lune

With Balrog left to glower warningly behind the bleached and weighty lectern,  
Lune retired to leaf amongst the ashen records and divine the extent  
of his last subject's sinful transgressions.

Milk-pale hands flew over the brittle bleached parchments of those damned souls and  
pushed ivory hair irritably out of the moon-bright eyes  
as the Prosecutor worked his way through the stacks and left the Skeleton behind.

The task should have been simple; a death by endless snows, explicable ...

At last, at last the needed tome was found;   
and Lune settled himself with bone-pen, ichor and ash to transcribe the proceedings.


	9. black

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> black : Gryphon Minos, Hades

Proud though he be, to the greater darkness   
Minos would bend the knee, and willingly so;  
and to that deeper dark he did so now,   
with head bowed low and gaze downcast.

Sixfold shadowed wings stirred and struck   
glittering sparks dark as the night, as the great midnight mane   
coiled in the deathly winds.  
Darkness incarnate, flawless and imperishable.

And then the master of the dead lifted his soul-cutting blade  
to rest it lightly on the Gryphon's shoulder.

_:: Look at me, First Judge. ::_

Minos lifted his head slowly to stare into the Void,  
the endless abyss of those all-devouring eyes ...


End file.
